Systems and methods for minimizing travel costs for multi-night stays

ABSTRACT

A lowest rate on a multi-night lodging stay is achieved by obtaining lodging rate information for a first lodging location from a plurality of lodging rate sources. The information is correlated with a desired multi-night lodging stay to locate a lowest lodging rate for each of the nights of the desired multi-night lodging stay. Then, a plurality of lodging reservations corresponding to the multi-night lodging stay are generated, wherein at least two of the lodging reservations correspond to different nights of the multi-night lodging stay and are placed through different lodging reservation systems.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/891,015, filed May 9, 2013, which is hereby incorporated by referencein its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to travel costs, and more particularly tosystems and methods for minimizing travel costs for multi-night stays.

BACKGROUND AND RELATED ART

Many individuals have travel needs for business or pleasure. Travelersincur many costs when traveling, including transportation, food, andlodging costs. Each traveler has certain priorities when traveling: sometravelers most value convenience and a high-quality experience, whileother travelers seek to minimize traveling costs. For example, somebusiness travelers have very tight schedules and business expectationsand may be traveling at company expense. Such business travelers maytherefore be willing to spend more to guarantee the highest level ofconvenience and comfort. Meanwhile, a family on a tight budget might bevery cost conscious and may be willing to deal with some inconvenienceto get the best price on their travel options.

The travel industry has evolved solutions attempting to address thevarying needs of different types of travel consumers. Travelers canselect between first class and coach seats when selecting flights andcan often select between direct flights between destinations at a highercost and multi-leg flights between the same destinations at a lowercost. Travelers can also select between more luxurious accommodations orless luxurious accommodations within a hotel or may select betweenvarious available hotels based on quality of the hotel and/or based onproximity to a location of interest. Similar decisions can be made withrespect to nearly every aspect of travel, from food to entertainment torental vehicles and so forth.

Traditional travel agents evolved to advise travelers and to helptravelers intelligently select among the various options when traveling.Travel agents also often helped make travel associated reservations,including for lodging, airfare or other transportation, tours andentertainment, and the like. With the advent of the Internet, onlinetravel agencies (OTAs) have been created and have evolved to providemany of the same functions to consumers. Some OTAs have focused on aparticular aspect of travel (e.g., transportation, lodging,entertainment), and other OTAs attempt to more generally provideinformation and booking options for multiple aspects of travel. Inaddition to third-party OTAs, some lodging and transportation providersare providing similar features. Examples of existing OTAs includeExpedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Hotwire, Priceline.com, Hotels.com,Booking.com, among others. Additionally, some parties, such as Kayak,Mobissimo, and Trivago, aggregate travel search results and options frommultiple OTAs into a single location for presentation to the consumer.Furthermore, any travel providers provide OTA-like services directly toconsumers.

In a typical user experience, a consumer may visit a website of an OTAand may enter desired travel options, such as expected dates andlocations of travel, desired class of transportation or lodging, etc.,as well as whether the consumer is flexible in either travel dates orlocation. The OTA then searches available deals and presents searchresults to the consumer through the website. Depending on the functionof the OTA, the OTA may search only deals under its own contracts withproviders, or it may search available deals through other providers,including potentially through other OTAs. The results are oftenpresented to the user using a view selected to convey certain traveloptions to the consumer. For example, the view may be a list viewshowing a list of options and associated costs, potentially along withother information about the options. As another example, the view may bea calendar view showing variations in pricing if the dates of the travelare varied. As another example, the view may be a matrix view, withvarious axes of the matrix illustrating various travel options, and withprice and potentially other options located in each of the cells of thematrix. Regardless, information may be presented to the consumer usingany of a number of views, and OTAs are continually evaluating the bestway in which to present information and changing how information isdisplayed.

Consumers utilize OTAs to research and obtain the best travel deals, andoften use the OTAs to book or reserve travel accommodations andamenities. One particular use of OTAs or other travel providers, whetheronline or not, is to obtain lodging accommodations, includingmulti-night stays. Most consumers think of multi-night stays and otheraspects of travel as a unit having a single price that can be comparedacross various providers (either lodging providers directly or throughOTAs) and do not consider that multi-night stays are actually made up ofan itinerary of single-night stays that often vary in rate depending onmany daily factors such as demand, holidays, and the like. OTAs andother travel providers do not help consumers overcome theirmisunderstanding, and consumers are therefore unlikely to understand thefactors that make up the rates they are quoted by the various OTAs.

Despite all the advances that have occurred in recent years, existingOTAs still are unable to ensure that cost-conscious consumers are ableto get the best possible deal on their travel needs.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Implementation of the invention provides systems, methods, andnon-transitory computer readable media storing computer program codeinstructions to cause a computer to execute methods of obtaining alowest rate on a multi-night lodging stay. In accordance withimplementations of the invention, a method for obtaining a lowest rateon a multi-night lodging stay includes obtaining lodging rateinformation for a first lodging location from a plurality of lodgingrate sources and receiving, from a consumer, information defining adesired multi-night lodging stay at the first lodging location. Themethod also includes comparing the information defining the desiredmulti-night lodging stay to the lodging rate information from theplurality of lodging rate sources to locate a lowest lodging rate foreach of the nights of the desired multi- night lodging stay andgenerating a plurality of lodging reservations corresponding to themulti-night lodging stay, wherein at least two of the lodgingreservations correspond to different nights of the multi-night lodgingstay and are placed through different lodging reservation systems.

Obtaining lodging rate information may include automatically conductingrate searches at the plurality of lodging rate sources when theinformation defining a desired multi-night lodging stay is received fromthe consumer, conducting rate searches at the plurality of lodging ratesources prior to receipt of information defining a desired multi-nightlodging stay and storing the lodging rate information in a database ofrate information and obtaining lodging rate information from eachlodging rate source corresponding to a plurality of all permutations ofstays of varying lengths within the desired multi-night lodging stay tolocate any special rates available for multi-night less stays no longerthan the desired multi-night lodging stay. Comparing the informationdefining the desired multi-night lodging stay to the lodging rateinformation may include selecting a first night of the multi-nightlodging stay, determining a lowest available lodging rate for the firstnight through each of the information sources, selecting an informationsource having the lowest lodging rate for the first night, and repeatingthe steps of selecting a night, determining the lowest available rate,and selecting an information source having the lowest lodging rate foreach night of the desired multi-night lodging stay.

The method may also include updating the lodging rate information fromthe plurality of lodging rate sources throughout a period of time duringwhich any of the plurality of lodging reservations is subject tocancellation, automatically comparing current rate information to ratesof the plurality of lodging reservations, and when a current rate for agiven night is less than a rate at which the given night was reserved:automatically canceling an original reservation for the given night andautomatically making a new reservation for the given night at thecurrent rate. The new reservation may be made through a differentlodging reservation system than the original reservation or through thesame lodging reservation system.

The method may also include obtaining lodging rate information for asecond lodging location in geographic proximity to the first lodginglocation from at least one lodging rate source and comparing the lodgingrate information for the second lodging location with the lodging rateinformation for the first lodging location, wherein the plurality oflodging reservations comprises lodging reservations of at least onenight at the first lodging location and of at least one night at thesecond lodging location.

The method may further include providing a notice to the consumer that alowest possible rate may require switching rooms during the multi-nightlodging stay and receiving an action from the consumer indicating awillingness to accept the possibility of having to switch rooms duringthe multi-night lodging stay.

According to implementations of the invention, a method for obtaining alowest rate on a multi-night lodging stay includes obtaining lodgingrate information for a first lodging location from a plurality oflodging rate sources, receiving, from a consumer, information defining adesired multi-night lodging stay at the first location, and comparingthe information defining the desired multi-night lodging stay to thelodging rate information from the plurality of lodging rate sources todetermine a source of a lowest lodging rate for each of the nights ofthe desired multi-night lodging stay. The method also includesassembling a lodging reservation itinerary comprising multipleindependent lodging stays of one or more nights forming in sum anitinerary covering the desired multi-night lodging stay, calculating atotal price of the lodging reservation itinerary, displaying the totalprice of the lodging reservation itinerary to the consumer as a lowestpossible rate on the desired multi-night lodging stay, and generating aplurality of lodging reservations corresponding to the multi-nightlodging stay, wherein at least two of the lodging reservationscorrespond to different nights of the multi-night lodging stay and areplaced through different lodging reservation systems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The objects and features of the present invention will become more fullyapparent from the following description and appended claims, taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings. Understanding that thesedrawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are,therefore, not to be considered limiting of its scope, the inventionwill be described and explained with additional specificity and detailthrough the use of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a difference between lowest travel rates according totraditional methods in comparison to travel rates according toembodiments of the invention;

FIG. 2 shows a representative computer environment for use withembodiments of the invention;

FIG. 3 shows a representative networked computer environment for usewith embodiments of the invention;

FIGS. 4-6 show representative browser windows illustrating manners ofproviding features of embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 7 shows a logical connection chart between various parties involvedin seeking and reserving lodging accommodations;

FIG. 8 shows a logical connection chart between various parties involvedin an improved process for seeking and reserving lodging accommodations;and

FIG. 9 shows an alternative logical connection chart between variousparties involved in an improved process for seeking and reservinglodging accommodations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A description of embodiments of the present invention will now be givenwith reference to the Figures. It is expected that the present inventionmay take many other forms and shapes, hence the following disclosure isintended to be illustrative and not limiting, and the scope of theinvention should be determined by reference to the appended claims.

Embodiments of the invention provides systems, methods, andnon-transitory computer readable media storing computer program codeinstructions to cause a computer to execute methods of obtaining alowest rate on a multi-night lodging stay. In accordance withembodiments of the invention, a method for obtaining a lowest rate on amulti-night lodging stay includes obtaining lodging rate information fora first lodging location from a plurality of lodging rate sources andreceiving, from a consumer, information defining a desired multi-nightlodging stay at the first lodging location. The method also includescomparing the information defining the desired multi-night lodging stayto the lodging rate information from the plurality of lodging ratesources to locate a lowest lodging rate for each of the nights of thedesired multi-night lodging stay and generating a plurality of lodgingreservations corresponding to the multi-night lodging stay, wherein atleast two of the lodging reservations correspond to different nights ofthe multi-night lodging stay and are placed through different lodgingreservation systems.

Obtaining lodging rate information may include automatically conductingrate searches at the plurality of lodging rate sources when theinformation defining a desired multi-night lodging stay is received fromthe consumer, conducting rate searches at the plurality of lodging ratesources prior to receipt of information defining a desired multi-nightlodging stay and storing the lodging rate information in a database ofrate information and obtaining lodging rate information from eachlodging rate source corresponding to a plurality of all permutations ofstays of varying lengths within the desired multi-night lodging stay tolocate any special rates available for multi-night less stays no longerthan the desired multi-night lodging stay. Comparing the informationdefining the desired multi-night lodging stay to the lodging rateinformation may include selecting a first night of the multi-nightlodging stay, determining a lowest available lodging rate for the firstnight through each of the information sources, selecting an informationsource having the lowest lodging rate for the first night, and repeatingthe steps of selecting a night, determining the lowest available rate,and selecting an information source having the lowest lodging rate foreach night of the desired multi-night lodging stay.

The method may also include updating the lodging rate information fromthe plurality of lodging rate sources throughout a period of time duringwhich any of the plurality of lodging reservations is subject tocancellation, automatically comparing current rate information to ratesof the plurality of lodging reservations, and when a current rate for agiven night is less than a rate at which the given night was reserved:automatically canceling an original reservation for the given night andautomatically making a new reservation for the given night at thecurrent rate. The new reservation may be made through a differentlodging reservation system than the original reservation or through thesame lodging reservation system.

The method may also include obtaining lodging rate information for asecond lodging location in geographic proximity to the first lodginglocation from at least one lodging rate source and comparing the lodgingrate information for the second lodging location with the lodging rateinformation for the first lodging location, wherein the plurality oflodging reservations comprises lodging reservations of at least onenight at the first lodging location and of at least one night at thesecond lodging location.

The method may further include providing a notice to the consumer that alowest possible rate may require switching rooms during the multi-nightlodging stay and receiving an action from the consumer indicating awillingness to accept the possibility of having to switch rooms duringthe multi-night lodging stay.

According to embodiments of the invention, a method for obtaining alowest rate on a multi-night lodging stay includes obtaining lodgingrate information for a first lodging location from a plurality oflodging rate sources, receiving, from a consumer, information defining adesired multi-night lodging stay at the first location, and comparingthe information defining the desired multi-night lodging stay to thelodging rate information from the plurality of lodging rate sources todetermine a source of a lowest lodging rate for each of the nights ofthe desired multi-night lodging stay. The method also includesassembling a lodging reservation itinerary comprising multipleindependent lodging stays of one or more nights forming in sum anitinerary covering the desired multi-night lodging stay, calculating atotal price of the lodging reservation itinerary, displaying the totalprice of the lodging reservation itinerary to the consumer as a lowestpossible rate on the desired multi-night lodging stay, and generating aplurality of lodging reservations corresponding to the multi-nightlodging stay, wherein at least two of the lodging reservationscorrespond to different nights of the multi-night lodging stay and areplaced through different lodging reservation systems.

FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified comparison between methods in accordancewith embodiments of the invention (at bottom) and previous methods (attop). According to previous methods, a consumer might conduct searchesthrough various travel providers for lodging accommodations for aproposed multi-night stay. In this example, the consumer might want tostay at the MGM Grand for five nights from Tuesday through Saturdaynights. Thus, the user might search through MGM's own search tools, aswell as through the search tools of two OTAs, OTA 1 and OTA2. In thegiven example, each search would return a rate for the proposed totalitinerary. The rate quoted to the consumer by the various travelproviders is arrived at by the various nightly rates available througheach provider, but the consumer is not made aware of the individualnightly rates forming the itinerary quote and is forced to select thelowest total quote without knowing whether there was a way that theconsumer could have achieved a lower overall rate. In this simplifiedexample, the nightly rate for a particular night through any providercan range from one to four cost units. The total cost for the proposedfive-night itinerary is fourteen cost units direct from the MGM,thirteen cost units through OTA 1, and twelve cost units through OTA 2,so the consumer selects to purchase through OTA 2.

Because the consumer did not have access to the individual nightly ratesavailable through each provider and because the consumer could not makereservations for each night individually through multiple providers, theconsumer is still forced to pay more than he or she has to. According toembodiments of the invention, a service provider determines individualnightly rates available from multiple travel providers and assembles acomposite itinerary to be reserved or booked through multiple of thetravel providers. Thus, in the given example, the system determines thaton Tuesday, OTA 2 has the lowest rate, on Wednesday, OTA 1 has thelowest rate, on Thursday, the lowest rate is available through the MGMdirectly, on Friday OTA 1 again has the lowest rate, and on Saturday OTA2 has the lowest rate.

By assembling a composite itinerary selected from multiple providers,the system is able to provide significant savings to the consumer. Inthis example, a composite itinerary formed of five separate reservationsmade through three different travel providers saves the consumerapproximately twenty-five percent, costing the consumer only nine costunits in comparison to the lowest rate available through OTA 2 of twelvecost units. Additionally, the consumer has only to conduct a singlesearch through the service provider rather than conducting multiplesearches through numerous OTAs and other travel providers to try tolocate the best results. Computer device 10 includes system bus 12,which may be configured to connect various components thereof andenables data to be exchanged between two or more components. System bus12 may include one of a variety of bus structures including a memory busor memory controller, a peripheral bus, or a local bus that uses any ofa variety of bus architectures. Typical components connected by systembus 12 include processing system 14 and memory 16. Other components mayinclude one or more mass storage device interfaces 18, input interfaces20, output interfaces 22, and/or network interfaces 24, each of whichwill be discussed below.

As embodiments of the invention may be implemented in a variety ofcomputer systems, FIG. 2 and the corresponding discussion are intendedto provide a general description of a suitable operating environment inwhich embodiments of the invention may be implemented. One skilled inthe art will appreciate that embodiments of the invention may bepracticed by one or more computing devices and in a variety of systemconfigurations, including in a networked configuration. However, whilethe methods and processes of the present invention have proven to beparticularly useful in association with a system comprising a generalpurpose computer, embodiments of the present invention includeutilization of the methods and processes in a variety of environments,including embedded systems with general purpose processing units,digital/media signal processors (DSP/MSP), application specificintegrated circuits (ASIC), standalone electronic devices, and othersuch electronic environments.

Embodiments of the present invention embrace one or morecomputer-readable media, wherein each medium may be configured toinclude or includes thereon data or computer executable instructions formanipulating data. The computer executable instructions include datastructures, objects, programs, routines, or other program modules thatmay be accessed by a processing system, such as one associated with ageneral-purpose computer capable of performing various differentfunctions or one associated with a special-purpose computer capable ofperforming a limited number of functions. Computer executableinstructions cause the processing system to perform a particularfunction or group of functions and are examples of program code meansfor implementing steps for methods disclosed herein. Furthermore, aparticular sequence of the executable instructions provides an exampleof corresponding acts that may be used to implement such steps. Examplesof computer-readable media include random- access memory (“RAM”),read-only memory (“ROM”), programmable read-only memory (“PROM”),erasable programmable read-only memory (“EPROM”), electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (“EEPROM”), compact disk read-only memory(“CD-ROM”), or any other device or component that is capable ofproviding data or executable instructions that may be accessed by aprocessing system. While embodiments of the invention embrace the use ofall types of computer-readable media, certain embodiments as recited inthe claims may be limited to the use of tangible, non-transitorycomputer-readable media, and the phrases “tangible computer-readablemedium” and “non-transitory computer-readable medium” (or pluralvariations) used herein are intended to exclude transitory propagatingsignals per se.

With reference to FIG. 2, a representative system for implementingembodiments of the invention includes computer device 10, which may be ageneral-purpose or special-purpose computer or any of a variety ofconsumer electronic devices.

For example, computer device 10 may be a personal computer, a notebookcomputer, a laptop, a netbook, a personal digital assistant (“PDA”) orother hand-held device, a smart phone, a tablet computer, a workstation,a minicomputer, a mainframe, a supercomputer, a multi-processor system,a network computer, a processor-based consumer electronic device, or thelike.

Computer device 10 includes system bus 12, which may be configured toconnect various components thereof and enables data to be exchangedbetween two or more components. System bus 12 may include one of avariety of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, aperipheral bus, or a local bus that uses any of a variety of busarchitectures. Typical components connected by system bus 12 includeprocessing system 14 and memory 16. Other components may include one ormore mass storage device interfaces 18, input interfaces 20, outputinterfaces 22, and/or network interfaces 24, each of which will bediscussed below.

Processing system 14 includes one or more processors, such as a centralprocessor and optionally one or more other processors designed toperform a particular function or task. It is typically processing system14 that executes the instructions provided on computer-readable media,such as on memory 16, a magnetic hard disk, a removable magnetic disk, amagnetic cassette, an optical disk, or from a communication connection,which may also be viewed as a computer-readable medium.

Memory 16 includes one or more computer-readable media that may beconfigured to include or includes thereon data or instructions formanipulating data and may be accessed by processing system 14 throughsystem bus 12. Memory 16 may include, for example, ROM 28, used topermanently store information, and/or RAM 30, used to temporarily storeinformation. ROM 28 may include a basic input/output system (“BIOS”)having one or more routines that are used to establish communication,such as during start-up of computer device 10. RAM 30 may include one ormore program modules, such as one or more operating systems, applicationprograms, and/or program data.

One or more mass storage device interfaces 18 may be used to connect oneor more mass storage devices 26 to system bus 12. The mass storagedevices 26 may be incorporated into or may be peripheral to computerdevice 10 and allow computer device 10 to retain large amounts of data.Optionally, one or more of the mass storage devices 26 may be removablefrom computer device 10. Examples of mass storage devices include harddisk drives, magnetic disk drives, tape drives and optical disk drives.A mass storage device 26 may read from and/or write to a magnetic harddisk, a removable magnetic disk, a magnetic cassette, an optical disk,or another computer-readable medium. Mass storage devices 26 and theircorresponding computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage ofdata and/or executable instructions that may include one or more programmodules such as an operating system, one or more application programs,other program modules, or program data. Such executable instructions areexamples of program code means for implementing steps for methodsdisclosed herein.

One or more input interfaces 20 may be employed to enable a user toenter data and/or instructions to computer device 10 through one or morecorresponding input devices 32. Examples of such input devices include akeyboard and alternate input devices, such as a mouse, trackball, lightpen, stylus, or other pointing device, a microphone, a joystick, a gamepad, a satellite dish, a scanner, a camcorder, a digital camera, and thelike. Similarly, examples of input interfaces 20 that may be used toconnect the input devices 32 to the system bus 12 include a serial port,a parallel port, a game port, a universal serial bus (“USB”), anintegrated circuit, a firewire (IEEE 1394), or another interface. Forexample, in some embodiments input interface 20 includes an applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC) that is designed for a particularapplication. In a further embodiment, the ASIC is embedded and connectsexisting circuit building blocks.

One or more output interfaces 22 may be employed to connect one or morecorresponding output devices 34 to system bus 12. Examples of outputdevices include a monitor or display screen, a speaker, a printer, amulti-functional peripheral, and the like. A particular output device 34may be integrated with or peripheral to computer device 10. Examples ofoutput interfaces include a video adapter, an audio adapter, a parallelport, and the like.

One or more network interfaces 24 enable computer device 10 to exchangeinformation with one or more other local or remote computer devices,illustrated as computer devices 36, via a network 38 that may includehardwired and/or wireless links. Examples of network interfaces includea network adapter for connection to a local area network (“LAN”) or amodem, wireless link, or other adapter for connection to a wide areanetwork (“WAN”), such as the Internet. The network interface 24 may beincorporated with or peripheral to computer device 10. In a networkedsystem, accessible program modules or portions thereof may be stored ina remote memory storage device. Furthermore, in a networked systemcomputer device 10 may participate in a distributed computingenvironment, where functions or tasks are performed by a plurality ofnetworked computer devices.

Thus, while those skilled in the art will appreciate that embodiments ofthe present invention may be practiced in a variety of differentenvironments with many types of system configurations, FIG. 3 provides arepresentative networked system configuration that may be used inassociation with embodiments of the present invention. Therepresentative system of FIG. 3 includes a computer device, illustratedas client 40, which is connected to one or more other computer devices(illustrated as client 42 and client 44) and one or more peripheraldevices (illustrated as multifunctional peripheral (MFP) MFP 46) acrossnetwork 38. While FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment that includes aclient 40, two additional clients, client 42 and client 44, oneperipheral device, MFP 46, and optionally a server 48, which may be aprint server, connected to network 38, alternative embodiments includemore or fewer clients, more than one peripheral device, no peripheraldevices, no server 48, and/or more than one server 48 connected tonetwork 38. Other embodiments of the present invention include local,networked, or peer-to- peer environments where one or more computerdevices may be connected to one or more local or remote peripheraldevices. Moreover, embodiments in accordance with the present inventionalso embrace a single electronic consumer device, wireless networkedenvironments, and/or wide area networked environments, such as theInternet.

Similarly, embodiments of the invention embrace cloud-basedarchitectures where one or more computer functions are performed byremote computer systems and devices at the request of a local computerdevice. Thus, returning to FIG. 3, the client 40 may be a computerdevice having a limited set of hardware and/or software resources.Because the client 40 is connected to the network 38, it may be able toaccess hardware and/or software resources provided across the network 38by other computer devices and resources, such as client 42, client 44,server 48, or any other resources. The client 40 may access theseresources through an access program, such as a web browser, and theresults of any computer functions or resources may be delivered throughthe access program to the user of the client 40. In such configurations,the client 40 may be any type of computer device or electronic devicediscussed above or known to the world of cloud computing, includingtraditional desktop and laptop computers, smart phones and other smartdevices, tablet computers, or any other device able to provide access toremote computing resources through an access program such as a browser.

To minimize the need to download and/or install programs on users'computers, embodiments of the invention utilize existing web browsertechnology. Many browser programs currently exist or are underdevelopment for a variety of platforms, and it would be impossible toname all such browser programs, but examples of such programs includeMicrosoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, AppleSafari, Opera Software's Opera browser, as well as myriad browsersspecifically configured for specific devices, such as Internet-connectedsmart phones and the like. While the exact display of each browser canvary from browser to browser and while most are moderately to highlyconfigurable so as to vary the exact display, FIG. 4 shows arepresentative browser window 50 similar to what might be displayed on auser's computer device. It will be appreciated that many of the featuresdescribed below with respect to the illustrated browser window 50 areoptional or are optionally displayed or hidden as desired by the user,but each feature is typical or illustrative of features common to manybrowser programs.

The browser window 50 of FIG. 4 includes a title bar 52. The title bar52 often is used to display a page name of whatever page is activelybeing viewed. Most commonly, the page name that is displayed is selectedby the administrator of the website being viewed, and the page nameoften includes one or more phrases associated with the administrator ofthe website and/or the page being viewed. The browser window 50 alsoincludes a menu bar 54 that includes items that may be selected toprovide access to various menu functions, as is well known in the art.Of course, the menu functions provided in the menu bar 54 may varyaccording to the specific browser program, among other considerations,and access to menu functions may be provide other than by a menu barsimilar to menu bar 54, such as by selection of certain keystrokes.

The browser window 50 of FIG. 4 also includes an address bar 56, whichin the browser window 50 shown in FIG. 4 includes several browsercontrols 58 and an address entry area 60. The browser controls 8 and theaddress entry area 60 facilitate browsing using the window, permittingthe user, for example, to go back one or more pages, to go forward oneor more pages, to refresh a page, and/or to type in a destination site'saddress to directly access a page. Such browser features are well knownin the art and need not be further discussed.

The browser window 50 also includes a bookmark bar 62 that a user canpopulate with bookmarks to commonly accessed web pages, such that theuser can quickly re-access the page(s) by clicking on the relevantbookmark button. In most common browser programs, it is possible for theuser to have several different websites open simultaneously, and for thebrowser to provide rapid access, switching between, and management ofthe various open sites by way of various tabs 64, as shown in FIG. 4.Each tab 64 provides access to one open website. The tabs 64 facilitatenavigation between different open websites. The contents of each openand actively-viewed website may be displayed in a content area 66. Thus,the content displayed in the content area 66 may vary depending on whichtab 64 is selected, and which website is being viewed.

Whereas the tabs facilitate navigating between different websites, thebrowser window 50 optionally includes features to facilitate navigatingwithin a website, as is known in the art. Specifically, the browserwindow may optionally include one or more scroll bars 68. When a portionof the website being viewed lies outside of the viewable portion of thecontent area 66, the user may use the scroll bars 68 to accessnon-visible portions, as is known in the art.

Many currently available browser programs permit the installation ofadditional features, such as through what are commonly known as “browserextensions.” Browser extensions are becoming more and more common intoday's browser programs and have become one of if not the standard forextending the functionality of the browser programs. For browsers thatdo not currently support browser extensions, other mechanisms andinstalled programs are often available to provide similar functionality.For example, on many handheld consumer devices such as smart phones andtablet computers, apps may be used to provide certain functionality tothe devices. Embodiments of the invention may utilize browsers, browserextensions, standalone programs, apps, and any other mechanism toprovide desired functionality.

Embodiments of the invention utilize a browser extension or similarformat to provide functions in accordance with embodiments of theinvention. The use and installation of a browser extension is typicallysignificantly less involved and less computer-intensive than the use andinstallation of a standalone program. In many instances, theinstallation of the browser extension occurs essentially without thecomputer's operating system being made aware of any additionalinstallation. Instead, the browser program itself handles the browserextension and any demands made by the browser extension.

A browser extension in accordance with embodiments of the invention, forexample, may be rapidly and easily installed, such as by visiting adownload website. An example of such a website is shown in FIG. 5. Auser desiring to obtain functionality associated with embodiments of theinvention may visit a website such as that illustrated in FIG. 5 and mayselect an installation link 70. Upon selection of the installation link70, the user may be prompted to confirm in one or more steps that he orshe wishes to download and install the browser extension. If the userconfirms that the browser extension is to be downloaded and installed,the download and installation is completed. A similar installationprocess may be used to install a standalone program or an app, wheresuch a mechanism is used to provide access to the features ofembodiments of the invention discussed herein.

Where a browser extension is used, access to the browser extension maybe provided according to any method known in the art, but one example isshown in FIG. 6, in which it can be seen that a browser extension icon72 has been added to the address bar 56. Of course, where an icon suchas the browser extension icon 72 is provided, it may be provided at anydesirable location or on any desirable toolbar, including a new toolbar,within the browser window 50. Additionally, features provided by thebrowser extension may alternatively be accessed by one or more menufunctions accessed through a browser menu or any other similarmechanism, as well as by any means or mechanism for accessing suchfunctions now known in the art or later created.

Once the browser extension has been installed (which is a relativelyeasy process as described above), the browser program and the browserextension may be used to provide functions in accordance withembodiments of the invention. While the specific functionality of thebrowser extension may be varied in essentially infinite ways whilemaintaining the functionality that will be discussed herein, includingcustomizations for each user to facilitate each user's access, adescription of ways in which that functionality may be provided is givenbelow.

According to embodiments of the invention, a service provider utilizescomputer systems such as those described above with respect to FIGS. 2-6to locate most economical travel deals for a consumer and to present themost economical options to the consumer. The service provider acts as asecond-tier OTA, aggregating information from a plurality of first-tierOTAs, searching through the information and options to select the mosteconomical alternatives, presenting the alternatives to the consumer,and booking appropriate reservation(s) based on the consumer's selectionof a desired alternative. The functions and concepts provided byembodiments of the invention may be applicable to minimizing costs ofany aspect of travel, but as embodiments of the invention areparticularly useful in minimizing lodging costs, the followingdiscussion will focus primarily on utilizing embodiments of theinvention to obtain most economical lodging costs for a consumer. Itwill be understood that where the principles discussed with respect tolodging are applicable to other travel costs, they could be applied tominimization of other travel costs.

Existing OTAs commonly utilize contracts with providers of lodging(e.g., a hotel, a hotel chain, a motel, a motel chain, a bed andbreakfast, etc.) to obtain favorable rates for the customers of theOTAs. The contracts between each lodging provider and each OTA maydiffer in details. For example, a lodging provider may contract a firstparticular block of rooms for one OTA and a second particular block ofrooms for a second OTA. One of the two blocks of rooms may have certainbenefits or other characteristics, such as a better view, or proximityto or distance from an elevator, floor of the facility, bedconfiguration, other amenities, and the like, and the benefits orcharacteristics may impact the contract rate negotiated between thelodging provider and the OTA.

Additionally, the per-room and per-night minimum rate contracted withthe OTA may vary by date and/or day of the week, with higher-demanddates or days of the week fetching a higher rate than lower-demand datesor days of the week. The particular days or dates that may have a higherrate may vary based on a variety of known factors, such as whether thelodging facility is targeted to business travelers versus leisuretravelers and the like. In certain cases, the lodging provider mayprovide discounts on certain rates at certain times and may not providesuch discounts equally to all OTAs. Discounts may be provided due toavailable vacancies, booking stays extending more than one night, or anyof a variety of other factors.

The result of all of the above factors is that a consumer seeking to getthe lowest rate cannot rely on a search through a single OTA toguarantee getting the lowest possible rate for a planned stay.Furthermore, even if the consumer takes the time to search throughmultiple OTAs, the consumer still may not locate the lowest possiblerate for a planned stay. Factors interfering with obtaining the lowestpossible rate include the differences in contracts between the variousOTAs and the lodging providers, changes in rates over time, differencesin prices between lodging providers within reasonably close proximity toa desired location, differences in lodging providers contracting withOTAs, and the like. Some consumers, when faced with the difficulty intrying to obtain the lowest possible rate simply give up and accept thelowest rate they have located at the point of giving up.

FIG. 7 illustrates the complications consumers face when trying tolocate the lowest possible rate for lodging. If there are three possibleplaces to stay near a desired location, Hotel A 80, Hotel B 82, andMotel 84, the consumer may wish to consider all three lodging providersas possible locations to stay at. The consumer may know of three OTAs onwhich to search, OTA 90, OTA 92, and OTA 94, and may wish to conductsearches of all three OTAs. Each of the OTAs may or may not havecontracts with each of the lodging providers governing the availablerooms and rates. If all the OTAs have contracts with all the lodgingproviders, that means that there are a total of nine contracts governingrates between lodging providers and OTAs in just this simple example.Meanwhile, the consumer must visit the websites of all three OTAs tolocate the best rate. If there are multiple consumers seeking bestavailable rates, such as Consumer A 100, Consumer B 102, and Consumer C104, each of them has to conduct their searches on each of the websitesof the various OTAs.

If Consumer A 100 has a planned itinerary and room type preference andconducts searches at a certain time on a certain day, he or she willlikely discover certain rates through OTA A 90, OTA B 92 and OTA C 94.If Consumer A is seeking the best available rate, he or she will selectthe best rate available from among the rates displayed by the three OTAswithout ever really knowing why that OTA's rate is the lowest or whatfactors and per-night rate components led to that rate being available.Consumer A simply knows that he or she has selected the best rateavailable. Meanwhile, Consumer B 102 might have an identical itineraryand room type preference, but might conduct the search a few days later,when one of the lodging providers has discounted its rates to maximizeoccupancy. Consumer B 102 conducts identical searches as did Consumer A100, but because of the discount locates and is able to book at a lowerrate than did Consumer A 100. Finally, Consumer C 104 might also have anidentical itinerary and room type preference but might conduct thesearch a few days later still. Unknown to Consumer C 104, thelowest-rate rooms of the lodging provider with the lowest rates arefully booked for the first few days of Consumer C's planned stay, so theapparent lowest rate shown to Consumer C 104 for his or her planned stayends up being significantly higher than the rates of Consumer A 100 andConsumer B 102.

Meanwhile, none of Consumer A 100, Consumer B 102, or Consumer C 104 isreally able to be sure that he or she has obtained the lowest ratepossible. The consumers are unable to more fully investigate andunderstand the various components of the rates for their stay, and evenif they could, they probably would not want to do the work necessary tounderstand what would be necessary to fully understand and obtain thelowest possible rate. Embodiments of the invention address theseproblems and assist the consumer in achieving the lowest possible ratesfor travel lodging.

One of the problems hindering the consumer is the varying contractsnegotiated by the various OTAs. According to the contracts between theOTAs and the lodging providers, the OTAs and lodging providers negotiatewhat may be termed an “opaque rate,” which is the lowest actual rate atwhich a particular room or class of room may be rented on a particulardate. The opaque rate, however, is typically not advertised or at leastnot openly advertised by the OTAs. Instead, the OTAs may show, forexample, rates according to a full length of stay only. As anotherexample, an OTA may show the opaque rate for a particular lodgingprovider but may be prohibited from displaying identifying informationabout the provider—instead, the OTA advertises, for example, that afour-star hotel is available in a certain region for a certain price(which is the opaque rate), and the consumer has to commit to thereservation on faith before knowing what the lodging provider facilityactually is.

To illustrate possible savings that the consumer misses usingtraditional methods, Table 1 shows a representative comparison of thenightly opaque rate at a certain point in time for between the variousOTAs for a single lodging facility and class of room over the course ofa representative week.

TABLE 1 OTA A OTA B OTA C Lowest Night Rate Rate Rate Daily Rate Sunday420.00 409.00 420.00 409.00 Monday 125.00 132.00 125.00 125.00 Tuesday125.00 132.00 125.00 125.00 Wednesday 125.00 110.00 125.00 110.00Thursday 125.00 110.00 125.00 110.00 Friday 325.00 340.00 340.00 325.00Saturday 310.00 310.00 300.00 300.00 Total for Week 1,555.00 1,543.001,560.00 1,504.00

When the consumer conducts his or her searches, the various OTAs willtypically only display the weekly rate, not the various nightly ratesthat make up the weekly rate. As may be seen from Table 1, the consumerconducting the search may therefore assume that the lowest possibleweekly rate is available through OTA B, saving twelve dollars over OTAA's best rate and seventeen dollars over OTA C's best rate. The consumerwould then typically make a reservation through OTA B. What the consumerdoes not and cannot know is that if the consumer were able to access thelowest opaque nightly rate selected from among the various OTA's options(shown in the “Lowest Daily Rate” column), the consumer would be able tosave even more, saving thirty-nine dollars over OTA B's best rate.Embodiments of the invention allow the consumer to recognize additionalsavings such as these.

FIGS. 8 and 9 illustrate how embodiments of the invention may beutilized to help overcome the difficulties consumers face when dealingwith existing OTAs. According to embodiments of the invention, and OTAaggregator 110 acts as an intermediary between the consumers and theOTAs. Unlike existing aggregators, the OTA aggregator 110 does more thansimply repeat the consumers' queries to each of the OTAs and list orotherwise provide the results for the consumers. Instead, the OTAaggregator 110 accesses and processes additional data to ensure that theconsumer obtains the lowest possible rate and takes all necessary actionto make the necessary reservations to achieve the lowest possible rate.

The OTA aggregator 110 may access information from the various OTAs inone of several ways, including using an application program interface(API). In a first option illustrated in FIG. 8, the OTA aggregator 110accesses each of the OTAs in the traditional fashion, through what maybe termed the “front end” of the OTAs, which is essentially the samemechanism provided to consumers. In other words, the OTA aggregator 110obtains information in this example through essentially a similarprocess as the consumer would, though automated, by submitting queriesto the respective OTAs and compiling the results. The specific queries,however, would be significantly different from those a consumer mightnormally submit, and the OTA aggregator typically submits more queriesthan the ordinary consumer might submit so as to better approach theopaque rates for each OTA. The queries will be discussed in more detailbelow.

In a second option illustrated in FIG. 9, the OTA aggregator 110accesses each of the OTAs through what may be termed a “back end” of theOTAs. This option is achieved through an agreement between the OTAaggregator 110 and each of the OTAs, such that the OTAs grant the OTAaggregator 110 more direct access to information such as the opaque rateand other minimum rate data without requiring that the OTA aggregator110 conduct multiple searches through the front end to obtain such rateinformation. The OTAs grant increased access because when the OTAaggregator 110 completes a sale to/reservation on behalf of theconsumer, the OTA aggregator 110 books through the OTAs, and the OTAstherefore obtain their commissions granted by the lodging providers.

Regardless of whether the OTA aggregator 110 obtains information throughthe front end as in FIG. 8, through the back end as in FIG. 9, orthrough some combination of the two (such as where some OTAs grantback-end access and others do not), the OTA aggregator 110 obtains thelowest possible rate for the consumer by considering the possibility ofreducing rates for a multi-night stay through multiple bookings acrossmultiple OTAs (which may also include direct bookings with the lodgingproviders).

To illustrate, the example of Table 1 may be reconsidered. In thatexample, a consumer seeking a seven-night stay could conduct searches atthe various OTAs individually and would obtain a weekly rate quote of$1,555.00 at OTA A 90, of $1,543.00 at OTA B 92, and of $1,560 at OTA C94. As before, the consumer cannot know that different OTAs havedifferent lowest rates on different nights of the planned stay. The OTAaggregator 110, however, obtains this information and uses it to obtainthe lowest possible rate for the consumer.

The OTA aggregator 110 obtains the opaque rate, or lowest possiblenightly rate for each of the OTAs for each night of the proposed stay.Where the OTA aggregator 110 has direct access to this informationthrough the OTA back end (FIG. 9), the OTA directly obtains thisinformation. Where the OTA aggregator 110 does not have back end access,the OTA aggregator 110 automatically runs queries of the various OTAsthrough the front ends of the OTAs to discover the lowest nightly ratesavailable through each OTA for each night of the proposed stay. Forexample, the OTA aggregator 110 may run multiple one-night stay queriesthroughout the planned stay period for each of the OTAs and accumulatesthat data for comparison of lowest rates. The OTA aggregator 110 mayalso run query permutations to determine if lower rates are availablefor multiple-night stays. Thus, if the planned stay is seven nights, theOTA aggregator 110 may run queries for each night as a single nightstay, queries for each possible two-night block, queries for eachpossible three-night block, queries for each possible four-night block,queries for each possible five-night block, queries for both possiblesix-night blocks, and a query for the entire period. These queries allowthe OTA aggregator 110 to be sure it has acquired all lowest-possiblerate data.

Once the OTA aggregator 110 has obtained the lowest possible rate data,it determines what combination of bookings through the various OTAs willobtain the lowest possible weekly rate for the consumer and displaysthis rate to the consumer. Turning to the Example of Table 1 in itssimplest form, if the OTA aggregator 110 determined that one-nightbookings were the least expensive for every night through each OTA, theOTA aggregator 110 would determine that the lowest possible rate couldbe obtained as follows: Monday night through OTA B 92, Tuesday nightthrough OTA A 90 or OTA C 94, Wednesday night and Thursday night throughOTA B 92, Friday night through OTA A 90, and Saturday night through OTAC 94. When the consumer elects to book at the lowest possible rate, theOTA aggregator then makes appropriate bookings or reservations throughthe appropriate OTAs.

In the foregoing example, the consumer would then have a total of fivedifferent bookings through three different OTAs. The OTA aggregator 110may seek to facilitate the best experience possible for the consumer inseveral ways. First, the OTA aggregator 110 may utilize a commonreservation number across all bookings, so the consumer need only know asingle reservation number. The OTA aggregator 110 handles communicationwith the consumer in a fashion similar to that known in the art, such asby delivering a reservation e-mail or text message to the consumer withthe applicable reservation number. Next, the OTA aggregator 110 maycontact the lodging provider directly to confirm that the lodgingprovider received the various reservations/bookings. Some lodgingproviders utilize older reservation systems, for example facsimiles fromthe OTAs, and the contact from the OTA aggregator 110 ensures that theconsumer does not arrive at the lodging provider to discover thereservation was not entered into the lodging provider's systems. The OTAaggregator also notifies the lodging provider that the variousreservations or bookings all correspond to the same single reservationor booking so the lodging provider can plan accordingly to deliver thebest customer service experience to the consumer.

As may be appreciated from the foregoing description, where multiplebookings or reservations are made through multiple OTAs, the variousbookings or reservations may theoretically apply to different rooms. Asdiscussed above, for example, the lodging provider may have contractedwith OTA A 90 for a certain block of rooms and with OTA B 92 for asecond block of rooms. When reservations are made through multiple OTAsthat theoretically apply to different rooms, one or more of severalactions may occur. First, the consumer may be clearly notified inadvance that the proposed price may involve one or more changes of roomduring his or her stay. If the consumer wishes not to accept thepossibility of a room change, the OTA aggregator 110 may take one ofseveral actions. As one example, the OTA aggregator 110 may contact thelodging provider directly to determine whether the lodging provider willbe able to accommodate the multiple bookings or reservations as for asingle room. Lodging providers are typically motivated to keep guests ina single room as that usually lowers the cost of cleaning the rooms andsoiled linens/towels and also improves customer relations. Thus, even ifthe consumer accepts the possibility of a room change or if the lodgingprovider may not theoretically maximize the possible rental rates if theconsumer stays in a single room, the lodging provider may well leave theconsumer in a single room.

As another example, if the consumer takes an action indicative ofunwillingness to accept the possibility of a room change, the OTAaggregator 110 may recalculate the lowest possible rate that can beachieved with a single booking. The OTA aggregator 110 then presentsthis new lowest rate to the consumer. When presented with thedifference, many of the most cost-conscious consumers may reconsideraccepting the possibility of a room change to get the lowest possiblerate. Regardless, the consumer still gets the lowest possible rate he orshe is willing to accept for the convenience wanted or the possibleinconvenience he or she will tolerate. In some embodiments, the OTAaggregator 110 may simultaneously display the rate with the possibilityof one or more room reassignments alongside the rate without such apossibility, so the consumer can make an educated decision as to whichrate to choose.

The possibility of a room change within a single lodging providerproperty and room level is one example of how a possible room change mayprovide value to a consumer. Other examples are incorporated intoembodiments of the invention. As an example, a lodging provider may haverooms in two separate towers. Based on the information available to theOTA aggregator 110, it may know that if the consumer is willing toswitch towers for the last night of a stay, the consumer could savehundreds of dollars. The OTA aggregator 110 may make the consumer awareof the potential savings and associated inconvenience and could allowthe consumer to decide whether the savings justifies the inconvenience.

As another example, the OTA aggregator 110 may determine that othernearby lodging providers have significantly lower rates for one or morenights of the consumer's proposed stay. This might occur, for example,when a first lodging provider is booked for a convention for one or morenights of the consumer's proposed stay, leading to increased rates forany convention nights. The OTA aggregator 110 may notify the consumer ofavailable cost savings. The consumer could then determine whether a stayextending over more than one lodging provider property and requiringrelocation between properties is justified by the available costsavings. For example, if the consumer wishes to stay at a particularlodging provider property to fully participate in a convention, he orshe may not wish to consider switching properties. In contrast, aconsumer on vacation at a certain beach may not mind switching to adifferent property with a similar star rating a few hundred yards downthe beach.

As another example, the consumer may be willing to consider a differentroom type or class for one or more nights of the proposed stay. Theconsumer may originally search for sea view rooms at a lodging provider.The system may determine that on one or more nights the rate differencebetween available sea view rooms and available pool view rooms issignificantly different. The system may then present the consumer withnotification of the difference and may provide the consumer with anopportunity to accept rooms of a different type or class. In someinstances, rooms that might typically be considered of a higher class orrate may actually have a lower rate through one OTA than roomsconsidered of a lower class or rate through another OTA. Embodiments ofthe invention may be able to capture all possible rate differences andmake them available to the consumer.

As still another example, a certain room type may have certain days ordates of low availability and higher cost. At times, a certain room mayhave a high-rate period that may be as much as three to ten times thecost of a low-rate period. According to embodiments of the invention,the system may flag such occurrences and propose to the consumer thatthe consumer consider a different class of room (whether within the sameproperty or at some other property) just for the night or nights ofextraordinarily high cost of the originally selected room class. As maybe appreciated, any of the foregoing examples may be combined asappropriate to obtain a lowest possible rate for the consumer within therange of options the consumer is willing to consider.

In certain embodiments, options for reducing the consumer's rate on amulti-night stay may be presented in any of a variety of fashions. Asone example, the consumer may be presented with a textual notice ofoptions and may be provided with an opportunity to accept one or moreoptions for consideration. As another example, the consumer may bepresented with a notice of different minimum prices, such as in a gridor list view, each of the different minimum prices being impacted byvarious options. The options impacting each possible minimum price couldbe listed in proximity to the price or could be shown to the consumerupon selecting or hovering over the price or some other selectorassociated with each price. As another example, the consumer may bepresented with an interface that allows the user to select or deselectcertain available options at some point during the process, therebyaffecting the range of rates displayed to the consumer. Any knowngraphical user interfaces may be used to present options to the user,including sliders, toggle switches, buttons, and the like.

The options presented to the consumer may vary from situation tosituation. For example, a consumer might search for lodgingaccommodations at a certain selected property on the Strip at Las Vegas.The system may determine that the consumer might be willing to considera mid-stay switch to another property because numerous other propertieswith similar star ratings are located within fairly close proximity tothe originally selected property. In contrast, a consumer might searchfor lodging accommodations at a certain selected property in a remotearea that is effectively only served by a single lodging provider orproperty. In that case, the system may determine that it would beinappropriate to suggest or provide options for considering otherproperties as part of the search, as no reasonable substitutions wouldbe expected.

To facilitate such considerations, the system may be programmed torecognize or determine situations in which various options may beapplicable. For example, distances between various lodging propertiesmay be input into the system, and a filter may be implemented that onlyprovides certain options for considering additional properties whendistances are within a certain range. Similarly, lodging propertycharacteristics, such as whether a lodging property is beachfront, maybe input into the system, and a filter implemented that only providesoptions for considering additional properties when additional propertiesare available by distance and also have certain shared characteristicswith the originally selected property. Numerous other considerations maybe similarly implemented.

Embodiments of the invention provide savings and information to theconsumer in numerous ways in addition to those discussed above. ManyOTAs have certain contractual obligations associated with theircontracts with the lodging providers. For example, a common restrictionplaced on OTAs is that they can only advertise the average nightly rateof a proposed stay, not the individual nightly rates of each of thecomponent nights of the stay. As discussed above, this limits consumers'ability to ensure they obtain the best rates on each night of theirstays. Even where the OTA aggregator 110 is required to or voluntarilycomplies with the same or a similar restriction, the OTA aggregator 110has first obtained the lowest possible rates on each night from thevarious OTAs and is able to compile a best possible rate, so that evenwhen the OTA aggregator 110 only shows the average nightly rate, it maybe significantly lower than that of any other OTA.

Additionally, the OTA aggregator 110 is able to continue to maximize theconsumers'savings after the reservation/booking because of the piecemealassembly of the stay from a variety of sources. Typically, once a hotelreservation is made, the consumer is able to cancel the reservation witha full refund up to a certain point in time. Once that point of timepasses, the reservation generally cannot be canceled or cannot becanceled without payment of a significant fee or portion of thereservation cost. In many instances, once the consumer makes areservation, he or she locks in a price and is not made aware ofintervening price changes that could result in a significant costsavings if the consumer canceled a previous reservation and rebooked.Meanwhile, price changes in the industry can occur regularly without theconsumer being able to take advantage of favorable changes.

According to embodiments of the invention, the OTA aggregator 110 takesadvantage of the piecemeal assembly of the stay and the OTA aggregator'sconnection to multiple sources of information to continue seeking costsavings for the consumer, including even after a stay has commenced. Inthe foregoing discussion, the OTA aggregator 110 obtains information byconducting queries through the various OTAs' frontend or backend. TheOTA aggregator 110 could also act as an OTA itself through a directcontract/connection with the lodging providers, thereby obtaining ratesthat may be better than those available through any other OTA. While theOTA aggregator 110 may make queries at the point in time the consumerconducts a search for a potential stay, the OTA aggregator 110 may alsohasten processing of the consumer's search by pre-conducting queries atall available lodging providers, properties, room classes/options, etc.and by maintaining a database of rates.

The OTA aggregator 110 can re-conduct its queries from time to time tomake sure that its database is up-to-date with the latest rate changes.Additionally, the OTA aggregator 110 may optionally receive pushnotifications from the OTAs and/or lodging providers directly of newrate changes and can incorporate any changes in rates into its database.Where the OTA aggregator 110 does not maintain a full database of rates,it can at least maintain a mini-database of rates associated withbookings or reservations made by its customers through the OTAaggregator 110 and can update the mini-database through renewed queriesor push notifications.

When the OTA aggregator 110 locates a lower rate than thebooked/reserved rate on one or more nights of the consumer's reservedstay, the OTA aggregator 110 first determines whether any affectednights are still outside of the non-cancellation window. In some cases,the nights may still be cancelable even after the consumer has arrivedat the lodging property and has begun his or her stay. If the nights areoutside of the non-cancellation window, the OTA aggregator 110 maycancel any affected and cancelable nights and may make new reservationsfor the canceled nights. Alternatively, the OTA aggregator 110 may firstmake and confirm the new reservations and only then cancel any affectednights.

Because the original reservation was not made as a single reservationwith a single OTA, the OTA aggregator 110 is able to take advantage ofchanging rates at any or all OTAs or with the lodging providersthemselves to maximize consumers' savings in real time. Thus, the newreservation(s) may be through a different OTA than the originalreservation(s), and the savings may be achieved in essentially real timeas rates change. In some instances, a savings may be realized even whena cancellation occurs within a window requiring a fee. Thus, forexample, if a cancellation of a night of a multi-night stay would incura $50 cancellation fee, but would also provide over $50 in savings, thesystem may take advantage of the savings for the consumer. Regardless,the process is essentially an automatic benefit to the consumer with noaction by the consumer required, except that the OTA aggregator 110 maynotify the consumer and allow the consumer to accept or refuse thechange where a new, lower, rate becomes available that would requireeither a room change not previously accepted or a property change notpreviously accepted, and the like. Potentially, the OTA aggregator 110may retain for itself a portion of the benefit achieved as itscommission for the service.

As another example of how embodiments of the invention maximize savingsand information provided to the consumer, embodiments of the inventionpermit the OTA aggregator 110 to overcome some of the contractuallimitations imposed on certain OTAs. For example, some OTAs agree tolimit or hide certain information from the consumers. An OTA may hidethe actual name of a property from frontend (e.g., consumer) access,only advertising that a certain classroom is available at, say, afour-star hotel in a certain general location at a certain rate or thatis available for a consumer to bid on or name his or her own rate, andmay even display the minimum nightly rate because it is not showing theactual associated property name. The full information may be availablethrough the OTA's backend, and the OTA aggregator 110 is able to usethat information without breaking the contractual terms, as the OTAaggregator 110 only displays the information as part of an averagenightly rate and/or a rate for the full stay.

Embodiments of the invention also avoid situations where other OTAsmight return that no matching results are available, or that only ahigher rate is available due to only a higher room class beingavailable. For example, as discussed above, the contracts between thevarious OTAs and lodging providers may assign certain blocks of rooms tocertain OTAs. Thus, even if a certain lodging provider may have rooms ofa certain class available, it might not have rooms available through acertain OTA. Table 2 is a variation on Table 1 that illustrates thispossibility.

TABLE 2 OTA A OTA B OTA C Lowest Night Rate Rate Rate Daily Rate Sunday420.00 409.00 420.00 409.00 Monday 125.00 132.00 125.00 125.00 Tuesday125.00 132.00 125.00 125.00 Wednesday Unavailable 110.00 125.00 110.00Thursday 125.00 110.00 125.00 110.00 Friday 325.00 Unavailable 340.00325.00 Saturday 310.00 Unavailable 300.00 300.00 Total for WeekUnavailable Unavailable 1,560.00 1,504.00

In this example, OTA A does not have a room satisfying the consumer'squery on Wednesday while OTA B does not have a room satisfying theconsumer's query on Friday or Saturday. In those cases, the respectiveOTAs might be unable to return a satisfactory itinerary and willtherefore indicate to the consumer that his or her requested itineraryis unavailable. Thus, absent the presence of the OTA aggregator 110, theconsumer would be forced to make the reservation through OTA C, whichwas the most expensive OTA of the ones shown in Table 1. In an even moreextreme example, rooms might be available all nights, but no OTA wouldindividually have rooms available, and the consumer would be completelyunable to make a reservation of the desired class of rooms through anyavailable OTA.

Because the OTA aggregator 110 is able to assemble the reservationpiecemeal from all of the OTAs, the OTA aggregator 110 is able to makereservations through multiple OTAs. Thus, the OTA aggregator 110navigates around periods of unavailability through the various OTAs andassembles multiple reservations through multiple OTAs to complete thedesired itinerary for the consumer. Thus, the OTA aggregator 110 is ableto display that an itinerary is available at a desired room class andproperty while other OTAs display that the itinerary is unavailable. TheOTA aggregator 110 is also able to display that an itinerary isavailable at a desired room class and property while other OTAs can onlydisplay that only a more-expensive room class is available.

The foregoing examples illustrate the benefits provided by the OTAaggregator 110 and the methods and systems for compiling a compositereservation from multiple bookings.

The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms withoutdeparting from its spirit or essential characteristics. The describedembodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrativeand not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicatedby the appended claims, rather than by the foregoing description. Allchanges which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of theclaims are to be embraced within their scope.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for obtaining a lowest rate on amulti-night lodging stay comprising: receiving information defining adesired multi-night lodging stay at the first lodging location; using acomputer system to automatically obtain lodging rate information for afirst lodging location from a plurality of lodging rate sources; usingthe computer system to compare the information defining the desiredmulti-night lodging stay to the lodging rate information from theplurality of lodging rate sources to locate a lowest lodging rate foreach of the nights of the desired multi-night lodging stay; using thecomputer system to generate a plurality of lodging reservationscorresponding to the multi-night lodging stay, wherein at least two ofthe lodging reservations correspond to different nights of themulti-night lodging stay and are placed through different lodgingreservation systems.
 2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein usingthe computer system to automatically obtain lodging rate informationcomprises automatically conducting rate searches at the plurality oflodging rate sources when the information defining a desired multi-nightlodging stay is received from the consumer.
 3. A method as recited inclaim 1, wherein using the computer system to automatically obtainlodging rate information comprises conducting rate searches at theplurality of lodging rate sources prior to receipt of informationdefining a desired multi-night lodging stay and storing the lodging rateinformation in a database of rate information.
 4. A method as recited inclaim 1, wherein using the computer system to automatically obtainlodging rate information comprises obtaining lodging rate informationfrom each lodging rate source corresponding to a plurality of allpermutations of stays of varying lengths within the desired multi-nightlodging stay to locate any special rates available for multi-night lessstays no longer than the desired multi-night lodging stay.
 5. A methodas recited in claim 1, wherein using the computer system to compare theinformation defining the desired multi-night lodging stay to the lodgingrate information comprises: selecting a first night of the multi-nightlodging stay; determining a lowest available lodging rate for the firstnight through each of the information sources; selecting an informationsource having the lowest lodging rate for the first night; and repeatingthe steps of selecting a night, determining the lowest available rate,and selecting an information source having the lowest lodging rate foreach night of the desired multi-night lodging stay.
 6. A method asrecited in claim 1, further comprising: using the computer system toupdate the lodging rate information from the plurality of lodging ratesources throughout a period of time during which any of the plurality oflodging reservations is subject to cancellation; automatically comparingcurrent rate information to rates of the plurality of lodgingreservations; and when a current rate for a given night is less than arate at which the given night was reserved: automatically canceling anoriginal reservation for the given night; and automatically making a newreservation for the given night at the current rate.
 7. A method asrecited in claim 6, wherein the new reservation is made through adifferent lodging reservation system than the original reservation.
 8. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer programinstructions to cause a computer to execute a method for obtaining alowest rate on a multi-night lodging stay, the method comprising:receiving, from a consumer, information defining a desired multi-nightlodging stay at the first lodging location; obtaining lodging rateinformation for a first lodging location from a plurality of lodgingrate sources; comparing the information defining the desired multi-nightlodging stay to the lodging rate information from the plurality oflodging rate sources to locate a lowest lodging rate for each of thenights of the desired multi-night lodging stay; generating a pluralityof lodging reservations corresponding to the multi-night lodging stay,wherein at least two of the lodging reservations correspond to differentnights of the multi-night lodging stay and are placed through differentlodging reservation systems.
 9. A non-transitory computer-readablemedium as recited in claim 8, wherein obtaining lodging rate informationcomprises automatically conducting rate searches at the plurality oflodging rate sources when the information defining a desired multi-nightlodging stay is received from the consumer.
 10. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium as recited in claim 8, wherein obtaininglodging rate information comprises conducting rate searches at theplurality of lodging rate sources prior to receipt of informationdefining a desired multi-night lodging stay and storing the lodging rateinformation in a database of rate information.
 11. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium as recited in claim 8, wherein obtaininglodging rate information comprises obtaining lodging rate informationfrom each lodging rate source corresponding to a plurality of allpermutations of stays of varying lengths within the desired multi-nightlodging stay to locate any special rates available for multi-night lessstays no longer than the desired multi-night lodging stay.
 12. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 8, whereincomparing the information defining the desired multi-night lodging stayto the lodging rate information comprises: selecting a first night ofthe multi-night lodging stay; determining a lowest available lodgingrate for the first night through each of the information sources;selecting an information source having the lowest lodging rate for thefirst night; and repeating the steps of selecting a night, determiningthe lowest available rate, and selecting an information source havingthe lowest lodging rate for each night of the desired multi-nightlodging stay.
 13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as recitedin claim 8, the method further comprising: updating the lodging rateinformation from the plurality of lodging rate sources throughout aperiod of time during which any of the plurality of lodging reservationsis subject to cancellation; automatically comparing current rateinformation to rates of the plurality of lodging reservations; and whena current rate for a given night is less than a rate at which the givennight was reserved: automatically canceling an original reservation forthe given night; and automatically making a new reservation for thegiven night at the current rate.
 14. A non-transitory computer-readablemedium as recited in claim 13, wherein the new reservation is madethrough a different lodging reservation system than the originalreservation.
 15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited inclaim 8, wherein the method further comprises: obtaining lodging rateinformation for a second lodging location in geographic proximity to thefirst lodging location from at least one lodging rate source; andcomparing the lodging rate information for the second lodging locationwith the lodging rate information for the first lodging location;wherein the plurality of lodging reservations comprises lodgingreservations of at least one night at the first lodging location and ofat least one night at the second lodging location.
 16. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium as recited in claim 8, wherein the methodfurther comprises: providing a notice to the consumer that a lowestpossible rate may require switching rooms during the multi-night lodgingstay; and receiving an action from the consumer indicating a willingnessto accept the possibility of having to switch rooms during themulti-night lodging stay.
 17. A non-transitory computer-readable mediumstoring computer program instructions to cause a computer to execute amethod for obtaining a lowest rate on a multi-night lodging stay, themethod comprising: receiving, from a consumer, information defining adesired multi-night lodging stay at the first location; obtaininglodging rate information for a first lodging location from a pluralityof lodging rate sources; comparing the information defining the desiredmulti-night lodging stay to the lodging rate information from theplurality of lodging rate sources to determine a source of a lowestlodging rate for each of the nights of the desired multi-night lodgingstay; assembling a lodging reservation itinerary comprising multipleindependent lodging stays of one or more nights forming in sum anitinerary covering the desired multi-night lodging stay; calculating atotal price of the lodging reservation itinerary; displaying the totalprice of the lodging reservation itinerary to the consumer as a lowestpossible rate on the desired multi-night lodging stay; and generating aplurality of lodging reservations corresponding to the multi-nightlodging stay, wherein at least two of the lodging reservationscorrespond to different nights of the multi-night lodging stay and areplaced through different lodging reservation systems.
 18. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 8, whereinobtaining lodging rate information comprises obtaining lodging rateinformation from each lodging rate source corresponding to a pluralityof all permutations of stays of varying lengths within the desiredmulti-night lodging stay to locate any special rates available formulti-night less stays no longer than the desired multi-night lodgingstay, and wherein the itinerary comprises reservations of varyinglengths of stay.
 19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium asrecited in claim 8, the method further comprising: updating the lodgingrate information from the plurality of lodging rate sources throughout aperiod of time during which any of the plurality of lodging reservationsis subject to cancellation; automatically comparing current rateinformation to rates of the plurality of lodging reservations; and whena current rate for a given night is less than a rate at which the givennight was reserved: automatically canceling an original reservation forthe given night; and automatically making a new reservation for thegiven night at the current rate.
 20. A non-transitory computer-readablemedium as recited in claim 13, wherein the new reservation is madethrough a different lodging reservation system than the originalreservation.